Evan Goldman is a Realtor with RE/MAX Advance Realty in Pinecrest.

Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before.

This week, we talked with Evan Goldman, a Realtor with RE/MAX Advance Realty who, with his business partner Hazel Goldman, was the No. 1 RE/MAX agent in Florida in 2012 and No. 43 in the U.S. A 10-year veteran of the industry, Evan is also fluent in Spanish, having studied and lived in both Ecuador and Spain, and also has experiential knowledge of Japanese.

Miami Agent (MA): We recently wrote about the plight of first-time homebuyers, and whether or not there are less first-time homebuyers in today’s housing market than in the past; is that consistent with what you’ve been seeing in your clients, or are there still many first-time buyers out there looking for homes?

Evan Goldman (EG): A lot of the areas that we work in are suburban neighborhoods that tend to bring in a lot of new families (with or without children), so I always see a very healthy dose of first-time homebuyers; usually, looking at the buyers I’m currently working with, there’s usually one or two in the crowd who are looking for a home for the first time.

So yes, I find the first-time homebuyer share to be very healthy, especially because in the suburban areas, which are more neighborhood- and school-driven, there tend to be less investors, as opposed to the more touristy beach areas here in South Florida, so as a result, you see more first-time homebuyers.

MA: Though asking prices were up by yearly amounts in September, they actually fell from the second quarter; are you seeing asking prices wane at all, or are they just as competitive as ever?

EG: If I had the crystal ball, or if anyone did, they’d be a very, very wealthy person, and they would probably dominate every single marketplace out there. It’s funny, though, interest rates are so historically low that even as they started to get a little higher, unless they get significantly higher, you’re still looking at historic lows, especially over a 30-year period when you compare to not-so-distant memories.

I still see so little inventory and so many buyers that I think it’s going to take a really big jump for it to drastically change the market in the short term. Now eventually, over the next couple of years, you should see somewhat of a slowdown; I think the question is how much of a slowdown.

MA: During the busy summer homebuying season, a big story in the housing market was the high percentage of listings that pended in two weeks or less, and here in Miami, nearly a quarter of listings achieved that distinction each month; with that season now in the past, though, are listings still going under contract as quickly?

EG: Yes, that is still very much the case. If something is well located and it’s well-priced, it’s flying off the market. Just last week, I had some buyers who made an offer on a property for about $1.29 million, and the asking price was $1.295. There were four offers, and two of them were over asking price, and previously, the house had been on the market for a higher asking price for one or two months. But the sellers reduced the price, and when they reduced the price, within a week or two there were four offers.

So it’s definitely somewhat of a frenzy still for the prime locations that are priced not necessarily cheaply, but reasonably or within the ballpark of what they should be priced at, because with the low interest rates, if people really want a good prime location, they’re willing to pay the extra $25,000, $50,000 or $75,000 and wrap it up in a short-term mortgage with a lower interest rate.

Regardless of the climate surrounding the marketplace, whether it be interest rates or the economy, there’s always going to be turnover in housing markets like Miami – people are always moving in and out; there’s a lot of relocation; and there’s a lot of foreign capital. Those elements generate a certain kind of a healthy marketplace. It’s important to remember that that’s our foundation, and then you throw in all the other factors – low interest rates, for example – and that creates a situation like now, where there’s a really big frenzy.